Congressman Don Manzullo
BIOGRAPHICAL STATEMENT
Born: March 24, 1944
Rockford, Illinois
Education: Juris Doctor - Marquette University (1970)
Bachelor of Arts - American University (1967)
Auburn High School - Rockford, Illinois (1962)
Family: Married - Freda Teslik, 1982
Children - Neil, Noel, Katie
Congressman Don Manzullo was first elected in 1992 to serve the people of the 16th Congressional District of Illinois, which includes the counties of Winnebago, Boone, Stephenson, JoDaviess, Ogle, Carroll, the majority of McHenry County and parts of DeKalb and Whiteside counties. In the 111th Congress, he sits on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, where he is the top Republican on the Subcommittee on Asia, the Pacific and the Global Environment and a member of the Subcommittee on International Terrorism, Nonproliferation and Trade. He continues to serve on the Financial Services Committee, where he sits on the Subcommittee on Capital Markets, Insurance and Government Sponsored Enterprises and the Subcommittee on International Monetary Policy and Trade.
STRENGTHENING MANUFACTURING IN AMERICA
In 2010, Congressman Manzullo is continuing his mission to strengthen manufacturing in America and create good-paying jobs for the people of northern Illinois and throughout our nation. As the top Republican on the Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Asia, the Pacific and the Global Environment, Manzullo will continue his work to level the playing field for U.S. manufacturers competing in the global marketplace. As Chairman of the U.S.-China Interparliamentary Exchange from 1999 to 2006, Manzullo continually engaged China’s leaders on the country’s unfair trade practices, including currency manipulation, piracy and illegal business subsidies. Manzullo continues to co-chair the 80-member House Manufacturing Caucus, which he founded in 2003. Manzullo is also a member of the Council on Competitiveness’ Steering Committee to the National Innovation Initiative, and he chairs the House Republican Policy Committee Task Force on Manufacturing.
As Chairman of the U.S. House Committee on Small Business from 2001 to 2006, Manzullo held more than 60 hearings on the state of manufacturing in America and introduced numerous pieces of legislation to make U.S. companies more competitive so they can expand and create jobs. Manzullo earned the reputation as Congress’ champion of manufacturing and a fierce advocate for job creation in northern Illinois. His “Agenda to Restore Manufacturing in America” outlines 17 priorities to preserve U.S. manufacturing and put Americans back to work. The plan’s highlights include providing tax relief to companies that keep jobs in America; forcing China and the other East Asian countries to stop manipulating their currencies to give themselves an unfair cost advantage over American companies; requiring the federal government to comply with Buy American laws; preserving America’s Defense Industrial Base; reducing the surging cost of health care; and many others.
One of the priorities in the plan, encouraging job creation in America, was accomplished in October 2004 when President Bush signed into law the American Jobs Creation Act of 2004, which provides a 9 percent tax deduction for manufacturing production in the United States. Manzullo led the fight in Congress to include the domestic manufacturing benefits, which keep jobs in America, and to share them with small businesses.
HELPING THE PEOPLE OF NORTHERN ILLINOIS
In 2006, Congressman Manzullo led a massive grass roots effort and met directly with the U.S. Postmaster General to convince the U.S. Postal Service to abandon a plan to move Rockford mail processing operations to the already congested Palatine processing center. A consolidation would have caused massive mail delivery delays for residents and business owners within zip codes starting with 610 and 611. The decision to terminate the proposal allows the people in those eight counties of northern Illinois to maintain their excellent, best-in-the-nation postal service.
Transportation is a vital issue for the people of northern Illinois. Working with U.S. Senators Dick Durbin (D-Illinois) and Barack Obama (D-Illinois), Manzullo secured $51.6 million in the long-range transportation bill in 2005 for nine critical road projects in northern Illinois. They include:
* $10 million for the future Western Bypass of Algonquin (Manzullo secured $9 million for this project in 1998) in McHenry County.
* $8.2 million for a 4-lane Route 20 from Freeport to Galena.
* $6.6 million for South Main Street (IL Route 2) Corridor project in downtown Rockford.
* $6.6 million for the West State Street Corridor Reconstruction Project in Rockford.
* $6.2 million for U.S. Route 30 widening project from Rock Falls to Fulton.
* $5.72 million for Rakow Road widening to four lanes between Route 31 and Ackman Road in McHenry County.
* $5.72 million for Route 47 widening to five lanes between Kreutzer and Reed roads in Huntley (Manzullo secured $1 million in 2004 for engineering costs for this project).
* $2.4 million for the Northern Illinois Commuter Rail Initiative, an effort to link Rockford to Chicago by commuter rail.
* $160,000 for the Willow Creek Bike Trail extension in Winnebago County.
As a tremendous advocate for commuter air service in northern Illinois, Manzullo has helped secure more than $60 million during his time in Congress to fund improvements to the Chicago-Rockford International Airport. In early 2005, Manzullo was instrumental in convincing federal authorities to put a U.S. Customs facility at the airport to allow international flights. In 2004, Manzullo secured $1.5 million to help market the airport and other Rockford attractions to potential passengers and visitors.
Building a new federal courthouse in Rockford has been one of Manzullo’s priorities for years. In the early 2000s, he secured $7 million for design and land acquisition to replace the old courthouse, which is too small and lacks sufficient security features. Manzullo and Senator Durbin were able to secure another $34.5 million in 2005 to fund construction of the courthouse. And in 2007, Manzullo and Durbin secured the remaining $58 million necessary to complete the project. The project broke ground in the spring of 2008 and is scheduled to open in late 2010. The construction phase will create hundreds of jobs.
Working with a coalition of local manufacturers, Illinois colleges and universities and our state’s scientific community, Manzullo helped secure more than $12 million to create a high-tech Research and Development Manufacturing Technology Center and small business incubator in Rockford. The EIGERlab will design the next generation of miniature machine tools that will build our nation’s future combat systems. The Pentagon contract was bolstered by SBA funding, which will allow the EIGERlab to create commercial applications for the technology, creating endless opportunities for Rockford-area manufacturers. Manzullo also secured $1.5 million to develop the new Agriculture Technology Park in Belvidere, another high-tech center which will help entrepreneurs research new uses for farm products and bring them to market. In addition, Manzullo secured nearly $2 million for the Burpee Museum and Paleontology Research Center to help the museum campus display its rare dinosaur, Jane, which will draw thousands to Rockford each year and create numerous jobs in the tourism industries. Manzullo also secured $2.2 million for the University of Illinois College of Medicine at Rockford to help expand its unique Rural Health Professions curriculum, which will draw students from across the world. He secured $1 million to help fund needed repairs at Crusader Clinic, the community health center in Rockford.
Also in 2005, Manzullo secured funding to help local manufacturers in McHenry County and Winnebago, Boone, Ogle and Stephenson counties set up flexible manufacturing alliances that allow the local manufacturers to work together to compete for larger contracts.
As a long-time supporter of public safety, Manzullo in 2005 secured nearly $1.2 million in federal funds to equip 40 police departments in northern Illinois with the latest technologies to fight crime and protect the public. Manzullo has also been a strong supporter of the federal fire grant program, which has delivered millions of dollars to fire protection districts throughout northern Illinois since 9/11 to ensure they have the most up-to-date equipment to be able to respond to terrorist attacks or natural disasters.
Manzullo is also working to protect children in northern Illinois from Internet predators. As a member of the Congressional Missing and Exploited Children’s Caucus, Manzullo secured $250,000 in federal funds to bring the Web Wise Kids online safety program to all the schools in northern Illinois to teach students safer Internet strategies when they are surfing the Web. So far, more than 18,000 6th Graders in northern Illinois have been trained under the program.
In his work to promote Rochelle’s intermodal transportation hub and the numerous job opportunities it is creating in Ogle County and beyond, Manzullo secured $2.2 million to help fund the infrastructure for the $181 million project. He fostered an agreement between the Army and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to clean up the 13,000-acre Savanna Army Depot in Carroll and Jo Daviess counties and transform it into a national wildlife refuge area and Bald Eagle nesting site. A portion of the land will be reserved for industrial uses, which will create thousands of jobs in northwestern Illinois.
With more than 5,000 veterans calling Stephenson County home, Manzullo helped convince the Veterans Administration to locate a satellite medical clinic in Freeport. The new clinic, which will eliminate the need for veterans to drive to Rockford or Madison, WI for routine medical care, opened in September of 2004.
Manzullo also helped several environmental projects progress in northern Illinois. He secured $500,000 to help the tiny McHenry County community of Port Barrington build its own sewage system and prevent 70,000 gallons of raw sewage from flowing into the Fox River each day from residents’ septic systems. In addition, Manzullo secured $200,000 for the DeKalb County community of Genoa to help fund a needed expansion of the town’s sewage treatment plant, which is near capacity. He also secured $550,000 to help Fox River Grove residents pay for necessary improvements to their sewer plant. Manzullo previously secured $1.5 million to help Galena replace its failing sewage system and more than $2 million to help Johnsburg officials build a wastewater treatment plant to replace residential septic systems, which were dumping more than a million gallons of raw and partially treated sewage into the Fox River each day.
LOCAL LEGISLATIVE VICTORIES
Congressman Manzullo achieved his number one legislative priority in 2001 when the President signed his legislation into law to help veterans suffering from Gulf War Syndrome. The legislation was inspired by former Freeport, Illinois resident Dan Steele, a Gulf War veteran who died from the illness in 1999 at age 36. The National Vietnam and Gulf War Veterans Coalition named Manzullo its “Legislator of the Year” in 2001 for his efforts to pass the important legislation. Also in 2001, Congressman Manzullo authored legislation that was signed into law to ease tax reporting requirements that would have cost America’s colleges, universities and trade schools more than $100 million annually.
Manzullo amended the Clean Air Act in 1995, eliminating mandatory carpooling in the Chicagoland area (including McHenry County) and other large cities. The Manzullo amendment made carpooling voluntary while keeping the same high clean air standards. The amendment saves schools, local governments and businesses $1 billion to $2 billion annually in regulatory compliance costs.
Congressman Manzullo also authored a law that forces federally funded family planning clinics to report suspected incidents of child abuse and statutory rape to authorities. Another provision to require those clinics to notify parents before dispensing prescription birth control drugs to young girls was approved in the House but not acted on by the Senate. Manzullo also introduced legislation designed to curb the power of federal judges to raise taxes in state and local governments.
Congressman Manzullo also convinced the United States Navy to stop giving away its deactivated ships to our allies. The Navy now leases or sells these vessels, generating hundreds of millions of dollars in new revenue each year.
AWARDS
Congressman Manzullo annually earns recognition as a “Taxpayer’s Hero” from Citizens Against Government Waste, a “Taxpayer’s Friend” by the National Taxpayers Union, and a “Friend of Agriculture” by the Illinois Agricultural Association. He has also been called “Senior Friendly” by the 60 Plus Association, and he received the “Guardian of Small Business Award” from the National Federation of Independent Business numerous times. He has received several endorsements from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. The National Association of Manufacturers has consistently honored him with the “Award for Manufacturing Legislative Excellence.” He has also received the “True Blue” award from the Family Research Council for his unwavering commitment to family issues, and he has received the National Patriot Legislator Award from the Association for Service Disabled Veterans.
In 2008, the Aerospace Industries Association honored Congressman Manzullo with its prestigious Wings of Liberty award for his efforts to modernize our export control system to help sell more products overseas and create American jobs. Women Impacting Public Policy – the largest bipartisan women’s business group in America – honored Manzullo with its 2005 Congressional Leadership Award for his strong advocacy of women and minority business issues. He was also named Legislator of the Year by the International Franchise Association in 2005, and he received the Champion of Small Business Development by the Association of Small Business Development Centers.
In 2004, he received the Distinguished Community Award from the University of Illinois College of Medicine. In 2002, he was recognized for education leadership by the Coalition of Higher Education Assistance Organization and he received the Distinguished Service to Higher Education Award from Northern Illinois University.
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